Newton aldermen want all four new modulars to be green

Thursday

Jun 23, 2011 at 12:01 AMJun 23, 2011 at 11:21 PM

Two committees of the Board of Aldermen voted Wednesday night to ask Newton Mayor Setti Warren for an additional $87,500 to make sure all four modulars that the city is planning to install at three elementary schools are of the same caliber.

The additional money will cover the cost of purchasing more environmentally friendly modulars, which will cut down on the school’s energy price and consumption, for all three schools. The city’s building department had originally planned for green modulars for Burr and Horace Mann but not for Zervas because the school is in line to receive funding reimbursements from the Massachusetts School Building Authority for renovations. But the aldermen said they would prefer to have all of the new modulars be on par with the green modular recently installed at Oak Hill.

Chloe Gotsis

Two committees of the Board of Aldermen voted Wednesday night to ask Newton Mayor Setti Warren for an additional $87,500 to make sure all four modulars that the city is planning to install at three elementary schools are of the same caliber.

The additional money will cover the cost of purchasing more environmentally friendly modulars, which will cut down on the school’s energy price and consumption, for all three schools. The city’s building department had originally planned for green modulars for Burr and Horace Mann but not for Zervas because the school is in line to receive funding reimbursements from the Massachusetts School Building Authority for renovations. But the aldermen said they would prefer to have all of the new modulars be on par with the green modular recently installed at Oak Hill.

“I believe at the end of the day if we would vote [for] this we would have two modulars that are similar to Oak Hill,” Alderman Lenny Gentile said. “I think we should establish what we think is the right standard.”

School Committee member Kurt Kusiak, who was at Thursday’s meeting, told the committee that the School Committee supports having the highest quality of modulars but is hesitant about funding.

Newton Mayor Setti Warren has appropriated $5 million for the installation of four modulars to the three schools, renovations that include six new classrooms at Day Middle School and the installation of sprinkler systems at the schools. The School Committee discovered it is required by law to install sprinkler systems into any building that receives renovations including modulars after Warren appropriated the $5 million, but the mayor hasn’t agreed to exceed that amount.

“We’re still working as hard to keep the project at $5 million or below,” he told the Newton TAB in an interview at his office Thursday.

But two of the aldermen say they aren’t happy with that answer.

“Some of us would like to push for additional money for the sprinklers so that it wouldn’t have to happen within the $5 million,” said Alderman Sydra Schnipper at the meeting adding that she and Gentile have been pushing the mayor for more money. “So far we’ve been told no, but we’re not giving up.”

School Committee Chairwoman Claire Sokoloff told the aldermen that School Department expect to have more cost estimates for the expansion and renovation costs for the Day Middle School project by mid-July.

“Trust me when I say this sprinkler thing has presented us with a challenge,” she said. “So we’re trying to be prudent.”

Laurie Cowles, the architect from the firm working with the city on the projects, HMFH Architects Inc., told the aldermen that she is estimating $700 to $1 million for the additional costs for the addition of the sprinklers.

Both the Public Facilities and Finance committees voted to approve the $923,275 to cover the cost of the remaining design, construction and installation of the two modular classrooms at Zervas, and one each at Horace Mann and Burr Schools.